Saturday, March 7, 2009

French Bread

We love Kroger's take-and-bake french bread... but, I wanted to try and make some of our own. A while ago I stumbled upon Sonshine's Bread Machine French Bread, and we tried it this weekend. I think it beat out the Kroger bread... now, we'll have to use it to make our "Kroger" baked sandwiches :)

Depending on the order ingredients go into your bread machine... place ingredients in the machine. I combined mine in the following way:

1) Place water in the bread maker
2) Butter, cut into chunks

3) Salt
4) 3 C bread flour (I LOVE King Arthur)

5) Sugar
6) Yeast

Then, set the bread machine on the dough setting and allow dough to knead. My setting takes 1.5 hours.

After dough cycle ends, remove dough and place on a floured surface. Cover and allow dough to sit for 15 minutes.

Knead dough just a bit, and shape into a loaf.

(Disclaimer: I'm not very good yet at shaping dough... but, the bread still tastes good!)

Cover, and let dough rise for 30 minutes. I let mine rise a bit longer... closer to 45 minutes, so that it would be ready with dinner, and I don't think it hurt anything.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly spray a cookie sheet (or, you can use a baking stone as Sonshine did and do not need to spray your stone), and bake for 15-25 minutes, or until slightly browned on the top.

Next time you make it, try using less flour when you remove it from the bread machine bowl, and you can even knead it a few strokes to work some of the flour in, until it is tacky but not sticky. It looks as though there was too much flour when you went to shape the loaf.I'm making this right now, without a bread machine, and I'm excited to see how it turns out!

I made this bread last night and it was FANTASTIC! I served it with homemade chicken wild rice soup and it was a terrific complement to the soup. Thanks for another great recipe! (And believe me, my loaf turned out a lot funkier-looking than yours. I definitely some bread-loaf-shaping tutorials!) :-)

I'm so glad that you enjoyed the bread! I've been reading about how to shape bread lately, so I'll have to try it on a loaf and share what I learn! But, the good news is -- no matter what it looks like, it still tastes good :)

Hi there! This bread looks fantastic, but I don't have a bread machine. I'm new to bread making - do you know how to do it without a machine? It's my hubby's favorite kind of bread so I'd love to be able to make it for him!

Just made this today and it was a big hit! So much so that I fumed all evening because I put so much more effort into making the lasagna that folks barely noticed because they were gushing about the bread. Thanks for sharing!

This has quickly become my "go-to" bread ... Using my kitchen aid I can easily double the batch (or today I tripled it). As for shaping the bread, I go easy.. once I'm done kneading it I'll hand roll it out into a log shape and then use my bench scraper to cut it into equal portions. From there it's easy to just make round loafs.

I've experimented with adding herbs ~~ basil, Italian seasoning, and it works great.

When cooking, please make sure to follow kitchen hygiene and safety -- cook meat until internal temperature is at safe levels, always check labels for allergens, and use caution in the kitchen -- I love sharing recipes, but I am not liable for damages done as a result of trying these recipes.